We're Brothers Now
by Stormyskies89
Summary: It's like having a big brother, Liam realizes, and – he thinks – since he's an only child, having a big brother like Scott is the kind of family he always wanted. Not a lot of dialogue, most of it is taken from the show.


**Title:** We're Brothers Now

**Summary:** It's like having a big brother, Liam realizes, and – he thinks – since he's an only child, having a big brother like Scott is the kind of family he always wanted. Not a lot of dialogue, most of it is taken from the show.

**Disclaimer:** Don't own Teen Wolf. Never will.

**A/N:** This is my first Teen Wolf fic. Please be nice.

* * *

_Brother: NOUN; a person who is there when you need him, someone who picks you up when you fall, a person who sticks up for you when no one else will;_

_A Brother Is Always A Friend._

* * *

"We're brothers now." Scott had told him. Brothers. But Liam didn't understand why until a few months later. Trapped in that well – up to his chest in water. Stab wound to the chest and trying his hardest to climb out. He called for Scott. The one person he knew would stand by him. The one person who was like family to him.

The one person he knew was likely to hear him.

In one last effort Liam was able to climb to the top of the well, but he was weakening quickly and his fingers were sore. Just as his fingers lost their grip on the wall of the well, a hand grabbed his wrist. It was Scott. With a strength beyond Liam's expectations, Scott pulled him out of the well and up onto dry land. Liam sat on the edge of the well to catch his breath. Fighting back tears as Scott told him it was ok, he was ok.

He knew the expression on his face when he looked at Scott was like a little brother being scared of the storm, or the monsters under his bed or even the nightmare he'd just had – and was hoping his big brother could make it all go away. And he knew their embrace was one that an older would give to his kid brother, Scott was his comforter. And Liam didn't care if he cried a little.

Because Scott was Liam's protector.

Liam's friend.

Liam's Alpha.

Scott was Liam's big brother.

* * *

As their relationship progressed, Liam started to see Scott more as a brother and less like a friend. Scott was his 'brother from another mother'. They were friends and Liam knew that this friendship was one for ages. Like Scott and Stiles, they had been friends for years and Stiles and Scott considered the other like a brother.

It just so happened that Liam was Scott's Beta. That made them really close. That made them closer then close. Scott had turned him to save him. He had no option other than to let Liam fall to his death and honestly, being a werewolf was kind of cool. The strength, the speed, the hearing, the sight, the healing. The healing was the best part. But it also meant he was part of something. He had friends – albeit all were older than him. But he was part of a group of friends that were like family to each other.

He was part of a pack.

He enjoyed spending time with Scott, Stiles, Kira, Malia and Lydia. Mason often hung out as well after he found out. Kira had once fooled Liam into going to a party at Lydia's Grandmother's lake house and Scott and Kira had then tied him up in the boathouse. It had been a full moon so he had to be chained for his own safety. But he'd escaped. And when Scott caught up to him that was when he had told him all about his own experiences.

And really if that meant that he might have called Scott 'Bro' every now and then and had mentioned to a new friend that he had a 'big brother' called Scott, well then – so be it.

* * *

The Dead Pool brought them closer. Being worth money to someone dead was a lot worse than having someone kill you for sport.

Stiles and Lydia had almost been killed by the orderly at Eichen House. Scott, Liam and Malia were almost burnt in the school corridor. Jordan Parrish was also nearly killed by fire in his patrol car – but he had somehow survived. Scott, Kira and Malia were also nearly poisoned. And then it had changed. Going from being 3 million to 18 million rattled Liam. Really rattled him.

He confessed to Scott that he wasn't like him. He wasn't as strong but that wasn't why. He wasn't used to jumping in front of people to save them. To risk his life every single day to save someone he barely knew, or didn't know at all.

"Kira found Brett. They're fine but we gotta go." Scott said he handed Liam his spare helmet and started toward the door.

"More assassins?" Liam asked getting to his feet and following.

"Maybe a lot more." Scott allowed.

"Different from the ones who just tried to set us on fire?" Liam said stopping at the dining table.

"I think so, yeah." Scott paused as he opened the door, able to smell Liam's anxiousness and fear.

Liam turned his gaze to the red helmet in his hands before setting it on the table, Scott closed the door as he turned to give Liam his full attention.

"How about I take you home?" He suggested holding out the helmet once more to the younger teen.

"I'm not like you." Liam said, raising his eyes to the Scott. The trepidation and panic in his eyes worried Scott.

"Not yet." He assured, meaning that 'maybe not but you will be'.

"I don't mean I'm not strong or I'm never gonna learn how to be in control. I mean everything else. You and your friends try to protect everyone. Have you been doing this the whole time? I mean, how are you all still alive?" Liam asked, Scott allowed the words a moment to sink in.

"Not all of us are. Let me at least take you home." Liam sighed and took the helmet and followed Scott out to his bike. Liam knew that Scott would look after him, because Scott was his big brother, and the big brother always took care of the little brother.

* * *

When Scott and Kira went missing Liam turned to the only other 'brother' he had. Stiles. He and Stiles had no idea where Scott and Kira were but they were going to find them. They were going to bring them back to Beacon Hills (if they weren't in Beacon Hills to start with) and they were going to be a pack again. Even when Liam was knocked on his butt by Brett.

So Stiles, Malia, Liam, Derek, Peter and Braeden all went to Mexico to get Scott and Kira back. During a full moon. With a young werewolf in the back of a van with two people who had experience with but were not werewolves. It was only when Stiles got him to repeat a mantra did he calm enough. 'Alpha, Beta, Omega' was not working but 'The Sun, The Moon, The Truth' did. Stiles thought the Buddhist worked better than the Hale mantra.

They found them at the old church. Chris Argent arrived soon after with Jordan Parrish and the Calaveras to help save Derek and Braeden outside the church, while Stiles, Peter, Malia, and Liam rescued their friends. Until Kira told them it was Scott they were fighting. Kira and Stiles (who found her) stopped Malia from killing him but when he attacked Liam it was his Beta who brought him back.

"Scott, Scott! Listen, listen, listen! You're not a monster!" The berserker paused and seemed to frown at Liam, "You're a werewolf! Like me." Liam could see those brown eyes that looked at him like he meant something blinked and then he could see recognition flash in them before the Berserker let him down and then started to tear off the armour, before ripping off the skull.

As he did Scott let out an animalistic roar as he took his werewolf form.

Scott was back and now he could protect his friends from Peter, who had told Malia how to kill the Berserkers. It was a fight to end all fights. Between the gunshots going on outside to the grunts and yells from inside. Liam, Stiles, Kira and Malia could only sit by and watch. Scott the True Alpha and Peter an Alpha only by killing, were in a battle – presumably – to the death.

Although Peter told Scott to 'fight like an Alpha' it was only after Peter threw a bench at Liam did Scott's demeanour change. Peter couldn't hurt his friends without Scott's wrath, but there was no way Peter was going to hurt Scott's little brother, and live to tell the tale.

And then, Scott, Stiles, Liam, Kira, Malia, took Peter back to Beacon Hills and then Liam, Scott and Stiles had to explain to Coach why they had all missed practices and Scott and Kira had missed the game.

After they explained Coach told them, "this boy is the best talent I've seen in years. So he's your responsibility now. You boys are gonna stick together. You're gonna look out for each other. And you're gonna have each other's backs. You got it?" Coach said seriously.

"We got it." Scott agreed giving a loving-brotherly smile to Liam.

* * *

Ok, so in hindsight it wasn't his best idea to take all his clothes off. Shorts would have been a good idea. Or even just his boxer shorts. But it had been unseasonably hot that night. He didn't mean to scare anyone into calling the Sheriff's department about him.

So as Liam stood with his back against the large oak that Scott and Stiles had chained him to while they talked about college and senior year he thought that maybe they had gone a bit far. It was one slip up. It wasn't like when they were going to Mexico and he nearly tore Derek and Stiles apart in the back of the van.

"Think it's been long enough?" Liam heard Stiles ask Scott.

"Yes." Liam called.

"Hey. Trying to have an adult conversation here." Stiles snapped back at him.

"All right, you're two years older than me. And I'm fine. Just let me go." Liam said, the boys sighed, Stiles handed Scott the key to the chains as he threw the map back in the jeep.

"It's not that we don't trust you." Scott said.

"It's that I don't trust you." Stiles offered.

"But after that last full moon…" Scott said.

"It was one slip up." Liam whined.

"Slip up? A dozen calls to the Sheriff's department about a 'monstrous dog boy running around the street of Beacon Hills naked.' That's a slip up?" Stiles stated.

"Why were you naked?" Scott asked, frowning.

"It was really hot out that night, okay? Let me go." Liam replied a little embarrassed about his 'big brother' finding out about that.

"You sure you're ok?" Scott asked.

"It won't happen again." He said.

"You're in complete and total control?" Scott had to make sure.

"Yeah. Complete and total." Liam replied. Soon enough the chains were gone, and Stiles was putting them back in the jeep.

As the two older teens walked away, Liam looked down at his palms – they were bloody with where he'd dug his claws in. As he resisted the change. It was hard but he knew he was getting better at controlling it. He'd even repeated the mantra whenever he could. He was lucky that his mother and step-father hadn't heard him repeating 'the sun, the moon and the truth' to himself in his room as he fought the take control back from the fangs, the claws and to make sure his eyes weren't glowing. If Scott could do it, so could he. That's what he told himself.

It was later at the hospital when Scott found out. The Hospital had called everyone back in to deal with the accidents that were happening because of the storm.

"My dad's helping out in surgery. He's not gonna be done for hours." Liam said, "So I'm either hanging out here or I could still go with you guys." Scott sighed as he jabbed the down button for the elevator.

"Show me your hands." He said. Liam sighed before pulling his hands out of his pockets and opening them to show Scott the nails marks in his palms.

"Okay, so I'm still having trouble." Liam admitted sadly.

"No. You're still learning." Scott said just the same way a brother would. Softly, like he cared, "what do you do to stay focused on not changing?"

Liam tugged on his earbuds for his iPod, "but it's not working."

"It's working enough. Listen Derek told me that you were one of the strongest that he'd ever seen at your age. Now, coming from him, that means a lot." Then the elevator opened, "Maybe it means that things are gonna be harder for you for a while, but it also means something else, doesn't it?" Scott said, still caring and softly.

"That I'm really strong?" Liam said unsure.

"Hell, yeah." Scott said.

* * *

First day of Sophomore year and Liam was a little nervous. Not because of the fact that he was now into his next year of school – but this was the last year he'd have with Scott by his side. It was just a little nerve-wracking.

"This is the one I was telling you about. I got it from a rare book dealer in Germany. Cost my 200 bucks but it was totally worth it." Mason was saying as they walked to History. He produced a black bound book. Liam fought the urge to roll his eyes.

"You're still reading about this stuff?" He sighed.

"I was attacked by an armour plated giant wearing a bear skull. It left an impression. Look. Look. Have you ever seen anything like this?" Liam found an image of Berserkers shoved under his nose.

"Uh, no, Never." He said, trying to avert his eyes.

"And then there's this whole section about the Nagual. Have you ever heard of the name Tez…tezcat…" Liam finally took a little pity on his friend and corrected him.

"Tezcatlipoca. No. No, I never heard of him." He covered it quickly but he knew he'd almost blown the cover that Scott and the others had carefully built to remain hidden and keep their secrets. Scott couldn't know that Mason was getting close to it, he couldn't let Scott down.

"Look I'm not saying that I believe all of it a hundred percent, but people around us seem to know things. Like Lydia, she knows things." Mason said as he and Liam left the locker room. Liam had to change out of his jeans after Hayden Romero put bubble gum on his chair in History ruining his jeans, he had grabbed his lacrosse shorts.

"Dude it's the first day of school. Shouldn't you be thinking about other things, like the soccer team?" Liam said, the team was dressed in their uniforms and were on their way out to the field.

"What do you think I'm gonna do? Follow them out to the field and watch them practice while I pretend to study?" Mason said. Liam shrugged.

"It's warm out. They're probably gonna be shirtless." He said, as Mason watched the goalie turned and gave him a smile before continuing out the corridor. Mason sighed shoved his physics books under his arm and gave Liam a small smile.

"See you in Physics." He said, patting Liam on the back. Strike one, Mason. Successfully avoided another conversation that could reveal him to his friend and endanger him. It was now clear to him as he turned and saw that his locker just had to be next to Hayden's he knew he wasn't going to catch a break.

"Nice shorts." She smiled.

"Yeah, thanks. You know, I was wondering if you were still pissed about the sixth grade, but uh, I guess you cleared that up." Liam said with a small almost sarcastic smile.

"I'm not pissed off, Liam." She said with a wider smile, "I'm vengeful." She said as it disappeared from her face. As she walked away Liam finally opened his locker and threw his jeans inside. Keeping his secret was going to be a lot harder than Scott made it seem. Particularly if he was fighting off Mason's interest and Hayden's revenge for sixth grade.

* * *

Liam knew – before he found out – he had worried Mason. Knowing the correct pronunciation of Tezcatlipoca. He knew Mason didn't buy it when he said it correctly and then said he'd never heard of it. The fact was Liam had _wanted_ to tell Mason the truth – Mason was basically Liam's Stiles to his Scott. Scott and Stiles were just like this, the timid werewolf and the excitable always intrigued researching human best friend, the only difference being that Mason didn't know and Stiles had known because Scott didn't keep anything from Stiles.

The night he was meant to meet Mason to work out and had instead gone with Stiles to see if Theo was up to something sneaky, was when Mason found out. It wasn't technically an accident. It was a necessity, to protect his friend.

"Hey. Hey. Sorry I'm late."

"Oh, no, you're not late. You missed it. I worked out. For two hours."

"Yeah, I know. I forgot." Liam said, "But I'm gonna tell you why. Actually, I'm gonna tell you a lot of things. A lot of hard to believe things. Really hard to believe."

"There's a wolf."

"Yeah I'm getting to that."

"No. There's a wolf right behind you." Liam turned slowly to come face to face with a large black wolf.

"That's a wolf." He allowed, Liam turned to race after his friend and as they raced down the corridor, Liam knew he had to do something. Turning, he locked eyes with a wolf and let out a roar as he half shifted. His fangs, eyes and claws. He knew Mason was at the top of the stairs and had heard and could see Liam from where he stood. As the wolf left and Liam turned back to himself and to Mason, he gave his friend a somewhat defeated look.

"There's something I gotta tell you." Liam said.

Mason began to smile, "You're a werewolf." He stated, not frightened and not freaked-out. He actually looked excited. Which wasn't hard to believe, because Mason was his Stiles.

At least Mason had a word for it. Intense. Liam found it slightly amusing. But he knew it annoyed Stiles. He supposed that was because Stiles had always been the only human in their group. To bring in another human and disrupt that delicate balance that Stiles believed was there, didn't sit well with him.

"Liam we said you could tell him, not invite him into the inner circle." Stiles muttered to him one day.

"I'm in the inner circle?" Mason interjected, the whole group stood around the school buses talking.

"No." Both Liam and Stiles said.

* * *

Scott's freak asthma attack at school was a fright. Liam had been out on the practice field, play challenging Hayden to who could score the most goals. Him with lacrosse and her with soccer. Never to be outdone. Since sixth grade they had been trying to outdo each other. But as soon as he heard someone asking if anyone had an inhaler he was off and running. He grabbed an inhaler he made sure to have just in case. He wasn't a chronic asthmatic but he knew that Scott had been – but he hadn't needed the inhaler for months now – ever since he became a werewolf.

"I've got it. I've got the inhaler." He rushed in, put the inhaler in Scott's hand and then tried to get his Alpha's attention, "Scott. Scott, come on." In one last ditch effort Liam made his eyes glow and spoke to Scott as his Beta, jerking the other boy into alertness and recognising the inhaler in his hand, shook it and took a deep breath. Feeling the medication opening up his lungs and his airways giving him some much needed oxygen.

"Thanks." Liam nodded, he knew it was the right thing by having that inhaler. Scott had told him not to worry when he had first suggested it, saying he hadn't needed it for so long he may have forgotten how to use one. But Liam had insisted and this was the reason why so he could save Scott a trip to the hospital. Liam had told Melissa that maybe as Scott's Beta he should have one just in case. So it was luck really that he could help out his big brother for once and not be the one being saved. He had to grow up at some point right?

* * *

After accidently 'outing' the werewolves to the towns folk of Beacon Hills Liam decided that he wouldn't leave the house ever again. He wouldn't hang out with his friends or with Scott. He would just hide.

"Liam." Uh oh, Scott was here. As Scott gripped his covers and tried to pull them Liam gripped them tightly, he grunted and coughed.

"No I'm…I'm sick. I'm sick." He said, Scott stopped, he gave a small sigh.

"You're not sick." He said, big brother starting to take over.

"Yeah. I'm like deathly ill. It's serious. I think…I think it's the flu." Liam stuttered from under his covers.

"It's not flu season." Scott pointed out.

"Uh, then it's probably pneumonia." Liam said.

"Liam, you're a werewolf. You can't get pneumonia." Scott said, "but you know what you can get is in trouble for being late for school. So come on, let's go." Scott tugged again on the covers.

"I don't think I should go to school. Or outside. Or anywhere. Ever again." Liam said sitting up, before he dove back under the covers again.

"It doesn't matter what you think ok? Because you gotta go now all you have to do is pretend like nothing happened." Scott said.

"Pretend? I'm just supposed to pretend?" Liam sat up again but this time with covers still over him.

"Think of it like when Superman gets caught with his glasses off. You know, he doesn't give up. He puts them back on and says 'I'm still Clark Kent'." Scott said.

"You want me to wear glasses?" Liam frowned.

"No! I want you to go to school, okay?" Scott pulled him off the end of the bed so he was on the floor. "And be Liam Dunbar. Just like how Superman is Clark Kent. Like Spider-man, or Captain America." Scott said.

"But Captain America is just Steve Rogers. He doesn't have to pretend. Everyone already loves him." Liam pointed out, "Unlike us who everyone hates. They hate us for trying to save their lives."

"You're right. We are trying to save lives." Scott allowed, "Which is why you're going to get up and go to school and pretend like nothing happened. Because if you don't more people could die."

"Because of me." Liam sighed.

"I didn't really know Brett or Lori. Well, not like you did but I know you. And if you're afraid of seeing more of your friends die you'll go." Scott said kindly. Big Brother still there and Liam at once felt like he could do it, because his big brother believed in him.

* * *

Liam overheard them. After the Hunters, after Alec joined their pack. He overheard them talking about how the relationship between an Alpha and his Beta wasn't just brothers close, it was much more like the relationship between a parents and their child. That way if anything happened to Liam then Scott wouldn't stop until that person felt the same pain he did. He wouldn't kill them but he would make sure they never messed with Scott McCall and Liam Dunbar ever again.

He had never thought of Scott as a parent. Scott was his brother – but as an only child Liam loved Scott with everything in him. Particularly when his mother got sick. His step-father did everything he could as surgeon but there was nothing to do for her. Liam needed his big brother. And as his big brother, Scott was there right when Liam needed him. He didn't brush Liam aside with a 'can we talk later', he took Liam aside as took a different approach, when asked if they could 'talk'.

"Talk to me. What can I do to help?" Scott asked. Even if he couldn't help, he'd be there for Liam whenever he was needed. And sometimes even when he wasn't. He was a big brother and he took that role very seriously.

The way Mason looked at him after Scott saved his life, unnerved Liam a little, but he knew that it had been necessary to help his friend. Scott had been the only one Liam had called, the only one who could help. The only one he trusted to save Mason. The only one to do what Liam may one day be able to do for someone else.

"We're brothers now."

* * *

_**A/N:**_ I left out the 'Super Moon' as it was a bit harder to write, but if requested I can alter this an add it in. Also I realize that Mason never became a werewolf as I can find no record of the event happening. As I understand it he was a genetic Chimera. He can still be Liam and Scott's 'brother'.


End file.
